
Class :2Aj>_AAJ. 
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COPYRIGHT DEPOSm 



Baldur the Beautiful 



By 

Grace Denio ytchfield 

Author of "Narcissus," "The Supreme Gift," etc. 



G. P. Putnam's Sons 

New York and London 

TTbe f{nicItecI>oc(sec pces0 

1910 



'f^ 



'I 



"b^ 



Copyright, 1910 

BY 

GRACE DENIO LITCHFIELD 



Viht Itnicfterbocftcr press, "Wcw ]l?orft 



CCI.A278654 



i 



TO 

EDWARD HUBBARD LITCHFIELD 



THE ARGUMENT 

THE subject-matter is furnished by the story 
of Baldur, as told in the Prose Edda. 
In Asgard, the city of the gods, are assembled 
the chief Scandinavian deities, with Odin, their 
father and king, who from his throne over- 
looking space catches occasional disturbing 
glimpses of Muspell, the final Heaven, whence, 
upon the Judgment Day of the gods (Ragna- 
rok), is to come the annihilation of the exist- 
ing hierarchy. Baldur, sometimes termed the 
Apollo of the North, one of Odin's sons — the 
iEsir, — is the god of light and love, or perfection. 
He is warned in dreams of impending peril, and 
Odin endeavours to save him by deputing his 
mother, Frigga, to demand an oath of the uni- 
verse that nothing will do him harm. All take 



The Argument 

this oath except the mistletoe, exempted by 
Frigga on account of its weakness. By means 
of the mistletoe, therefore, Baldur meets his 
death, through the knavery of Loki, the de- 
structive principle, better known as the God 
of Fire. Consternation immediately prevails. 
Valhalla being sacred to those slain in battle, 
Baldur's soul goes perforce to Hel, and Hermod, 
another of the ^sir, mounted on Odin's won- 
derful eight-legged horse, is sent thither to beg 
his brother's ransom. 

After a terrible journey, bravely endured, 
Hermod reaches Hel. He there obtains from its 
queen, Hela, Loki's abhorrent daughter, promise 
of the surrender of Baldur's soul, upon the con- 
dition that everything throughout the worlds 
shall first weep his death. If a single creature 
withhold its tears, Baldur is to remain in Hel, 
for perfect beauty and goodness are to be won 
only through perfect love and unanimous desire. 

vi 



The Argument 

Hermod returns to Asgard with renewed hope. 
Odin issues imperative command that all shall 
weep for Baldur, and an unprecedented lamen- 
tation follows. Loki only, disguised as the hag 
Thaukt, stubbornly refuses to mourn. Hela's 
condition being thereby violated, Baldur's soul 
must remain unredeemed till Ragnarok. Upon 
that future day, as foreseen by Odin alone, a 
battle will be fought in which, after incredible 
marvels, all the gods, including Odin himself, 
will be slain. The universe will then be purified 
by an overwhelming conflagration, and there 
will be created a new Earth and a new Heaven, 
wherein Baldur is to live for ever. Ragnarok 
being, however, still far distant, the world, 
bereft meanwhile of all that Baldur represents, 
continues unconcerned on its way. 



Vll 



CONTENTS 

PAGE 

The Argument v 

The Death of Baldur ... 3 
The Journey to Hel . , . .29 
Ragnarok 51 



IX 



THE DEATH OF BALDUR 



THE DEATH OP BALDUR 

LONG aeons past, ere yet was count of time, 
At Asgard, silver city of the gods. 
Bright-built, midway among the blazing suns. 
By Urdar Fount, 'neath mighty Yggdrasil, 
The Ash- tree Yggdrasil, whose branches stretch 
As high as Heaven, whose roots strike deep as 

Hel, 
The JEsiv held their court. 

There, on a throne 
Set higher than'the highest leap of thought, 
Was Odin, the All-Father, king of gods; 
Whence, 'at a glance, his vast omniscient eye, 
Midgard, the realm of mortals, overs wept 
As 't were a graven tablet at his feet ; 

3 



Baldur the Beautiful 

Thence, too, from Heaven's most southern edge, 

betimes 
Caught the swift flash, intolerably bright. 
Of a flaming falchion, where, by Gimli's Hall, 
Gold-roofed, Surtur, the Mighty, patient sat. 
Guardian of Muspell, ageless Land of Light — 
Muspell, the supreme Heaven, whence at the last 
Should flow the devastating fires of death. 
And Odin, the All-Father, inly sighed, 
By that fell gleam foreseeing Ragnarok, 
The Dusk-Day of the gods. 

A space below, 
His sons, the lesser gods, the ^sir, sat; 
First Thor, the Thunderer, with belt unloosed, 
His giant mallet like a feather weight 
Reclined across his knee; him following, Njord, 
Who held the master secret of the seas 
And drove the winds in leash; intrepid Tyr, 
Who lost his bold right hand 'twixt Fenrir's jaws ; 
Hermod the Swift, whose foot no dart outsped; 

4 



The Death of Baldur 

Bragi the Silver-Mouthed, whose spouse, Idun, 
Stored the gold apples whereof fed the gods 
When hoary Age overtook them, to renew 
The lustre of their spring ; Silent Vidar, 
Sandalled with noiselessness ; Hodur the Blind, 
Stronger than seven; Frey, the god of Peace, 
And Heimdall the White God, the Vigilant, 
Warder of Heaven and of the Gjallar Horn, 
Who heard the grass-blade split the buried seed, 
And saw by night, a score of leagues away. 
Clear as by noon; there, too, dread God of Fire, 
Loki, the false of tongue, falser of heart, 
The fair-faced sire of monsters — of the wolf 
Fenrir, of Hela and of Jormungard; 
And there, best, brightest, wisest, of them all 
The dearest loved, amid his brother gods 
Baldur the Beautiful, surnamed the Good, 
Moved, dazzling, like a flame. 

What favoured tongue, 
Wonted to godly measures, should avail 

5 



Baldur the Beautiful 

To tell his loveliness, his strength, his grace — 
Baldur the Beautiful? No whitest flower 
So white was as his brow. No snow that lay- 
New fallen in the sun so lucent showed. 
Moulded of light he was. His radiant soul 
Shone through him star-like. Day broke when 

he came, 
And Night was not, nor memory of gloom. 
As silver rays trembling on twilight seas 
Follow the flying moon, so shadowed him 
A Heaven of love and joy, and the ^Esir all, 
Save one, the Dread Destroyer, held him dear 
Beyond their breath of being. 

Ages thus 
Uncounted passed in Asgard, where the gods 
Each day held council, dauntless galloping 
Their flery coursers, moonstone white, uncurbed 
Over the Bridge Bifrost, the Rainbow Bridge 
That spanned the cloudy gulf 'twixt Earth and 

Heaven. 

6 



The Death of Baldur 

And there, the convocation at an end, 
Supine beneath deep-branching Yggdrasil, 
Content they hearkened, while, to pleasure them, 
Baldur the Beautiful sang songs more sweet 
Than his who moved the stones of Thebes in line. 
Or his whose loftier lyre built lofty Troy. 
Of middays Baldur sang — of hot noontides 
Thrilled through with pulsing gold; of silver 

streams 
Set thick with diamonds that mocked the sun; 
Of ivory blossoms gleaming mid the green 
Like drifted summer snow; of marshalled 

clouds — 
The sunset's standard bearers ; of white gulls 
Like jewelled arrows shot across the blue ; 
Of stars; of mellow moons; of all things bright 
And warm and glad. Entranced the JEsiv heard ; 
And as a hummingbird above the bloom 
Light poised on murmuring wing, with accurate 

thrust 

7 



Baldur the Beautiful 

Of rapier-beak straight to its luscious heart 

Gathers its one sweet drop, so breath by breath 

They drank the honey of each dulcet song. 

Then, on a day, there broke across the strain, 

Marring its ecstasy, discordant notes 

Of conflict and of darkness, that on ears 

Used but to joy struck wonder, as when rain 

Drops from an undimmed sky. Thus Baldur 
sang: 

Daybreak 

Arouse thee, O Day, and reconquer thy world! 
Night's challenging banners, triumphant un- 
furled, 

Float wide on the somnolent breeze. 
The valleys lie muffled and misty in sleep. 
Grey shadows, like dream-ghosts, uncertainly 
creep 

O'er the face of the shuddering seas. 

Arouse thee ! Undo the enchantments of Night ! 

8 



The Death of Baldur 

With tremulous pulsings and breathings of light, 

Pursue as he fainting retires. 
Pluck the reddening rays from thine opaline 

quivers ! 
Slant them up at the last of the stars where it 

shivers 

In the ash of its faltering fires. 
Unfasten thy curtainings, fold upon fold. 
Set wider thy floodgates of billowy gold. 
Lo, the lark is awake. He is fluting thy name 
From the quivering heights where the clouds are 

aflame, 

Ere follow the full-throated choirs. 
The tops of the listening trees are athrill 
With desire for the stir of thy step on the hill, 
For thy quickening glance o'er the hush of the 

plain. 
Come, crowned and engirdled with uttermost 

splendour, 
Thy glorious soul undismayed to surrender 

9 



Baldur the Beautiful 

In a breathless outburst of magnificent 'pain. 
Re-kindle the worlds with thy limitless light. 
Stand forth in unparalleled lustre and might, 
Every fear to dispel, every shadow to slay, 
O invincible Day! 



Then peerless Odin, bending from above, 
Asked whence those melancholy notes of dread 
And gloom came, darkling, to the canticle? 
And Baldur, all unwilling, yet compelled 
By that vast eye that had his soul in bonds, 
Of haunting visions told that teased his rest, 
Dire dreams, foretelling peril even of life, 
Whispered by Elves of Darkness in the hours 
When Sleep unlocks the inner ear to sounds 
Day overspeaks — dreams ill beyond concept. 
Eclipsing the sweet light of all his noons 
With hideous portents, laying malignant spell 
Athwart life's secret tides. Blood ebbed, breath 
failed 

10 



The Death of Baldur 

Before his menaced doom, though whence the 

threat, 
Or what the unnatural skill should compass it, 
He nothing knew. 

The ^sir, sore perplext, 
Pondered the monstrous tale. As when a wind 
Strikes the calm sea, wrinkling its satin plane 
With casual ripples that confusedly 
Quiver and cross, till met and intermixt, 
In gradual waves the tangled lines press on 
Under one impulse goaded, each from each 
So gathering impetus that, at the last, 
Grown into billows swollen to giant strength. 
From shore to shore they plough the ocean^s 

heart — 

Thus dread of boded harm to Baldur, first 

Uneasily the ^Esir's senses stirred, 

Then waxed to full possession. 

Now again 

Spake Odin the All-Father, king of gods; 

II 



Baldur the Beautiful 

And as through angry mutterings of storm 
The solemn roll of thunder breaks afar, 
Resolving all sounds else to silence, so 
His voice fell o*er them, and they hushed to hear. 

Thus he decreed; that straightway should be 

had 
From fire, air, water, ether, iron, stone — 
From Earth and every ore within her keep — 
From all that crawled, or walked, or flew — from 

all 
That being had on land, in sea, or air. 
In each and every star — from all wherein 
Flowed blood, stirred sap, coursed ichor — yea, 

from all 
That moved or moved not, breathed or breathed 

not, was 
Or was not — oath that none would work him 

harm, 
Baldur the Beautiful. Thus should his days 

12 



The Death of Baldur 

Be free from motived ill. And since of all 
Love's manifested fashionings, motherhood 
Most unalloyed, most flawless, swiftest was 
To see and do, nor spare itself in doing. 
The mission this commandment to proclaim 
Accorded should be Frigga — her who bore 
With gladsome throes to Odin this his son, 
Baldur, the best beloved. 

The iEsir heard 
Rejoicing, while, as ice melts under noon. 
Their fear went from them. Then, as fallen 

leaves 
In drear dead ranks, whipped by a sudden gust, 
Swirl from the ground instinct with winged life, 
So swept they forth on that behest, to seek 
The goddess in her dwelling — Pensalir, 
Built of red gold, roofed o'er with silver shields — 
Breathless o'ersprang the threshold, breathless 

told 

Their message where she sat serene and still, 

13 



Baldur the Beautiful 

Her face the face of perfect motherhood, 
Her deep eyes glowing with love satisfied 
And full. Ere yet the rush of words was done, 
Her heart had sucked it dry of argument, 
Leaving but sterile sounds. And lo! before 
Their anxious eyes could look again, the place 
Was bare of her as of a light blown out. 
And she had touched the extremest of the stars, 
Bent on her wondrous task. So swift of wing 
Is mother-love. 

Then Baldur sang of her 
This slender song — for that which fills the heart 
Must voice itself, or turn to heaviness — 
Though fain his insufficient lute had found 
A fuller measure, fitted to the theme. 

Prigga 

Great Mother-Heart, one with infinity, 
And old when stars were young, 
14 



The Death of Baldur 

Though all the gods together sang of thee, 
The best were still unsung. 

The surge of myriad seas is in thy veins. 

Thy rhythmic pulses beat 
Harmonious with Heaven's eternal strains. 

Its winds are in thy feet. 

Ruthless as Fate thou art ; a fierce typhoon 

When worlds thy path defy; 
Yet tender as the touch of summer moon 

Where sleeping lilies lie. 

Oh, love transcendent, vast as breadth and length 

Of space beyond the spheres, 
And mighty with the garnered grace and strength 

Of all the mingled years ! 

As o'er the land 'twixt widest east and west 
The wings of Day are spread, 
15 



Baldur the Beautiful 

So life lies folded to thine ample breast, 
Nourished and comforted. 



The weighty oath thus had and Baldur free, 
Once more was joy in Asgard. There, for 

sport 
Meet for high mirth, yet more to honour him 
Naught now might harm, in laughter and in 

love 
His brother gods set Baldur in their midst, 
A mark against their weapons' seasoned skill. 
** Stretch forth thine arm," cried one, '*that I 

may speed 
My lance between thy fingers." ''Stand 

secure," 
Another cried. "This cunning stroke of mine 
Shall lift yon lock from thy resplendent brow." 
' ' Hold fast ! * ' cried yet a third. * ' My sword shall 

cleave 

The shadow from thy body." Thus they tried 

i6 



The Death of Baldur 

Their various worth, and where by chance they 

missed 
Their purposed goal, the weapon fell on him 
Harmless as leaf on pool, or mist on flower. 
And Baldur's smile shone o'er them like a star. 

One only was there mid the jocund throng 
Who loved not Baldur — Loki, false of tongue, 
Falser of heart. Doth Night love Day? Doth 

Hate 
Love Love? Rage shook him as his sharpened 

blade 
Shivered and brake against that shining breast. 
Nor left a scar to point how true the aim ; 
And hurled he rock an Ajax might have doomed, 
It fell as light from that uplifted brow 
As 't were a shaken dewdrop. Blind with 

wrath 
That like red coals upon his eyelids lay. 
He hastened thence, put off his godly form 
And tricked him as a woman bent with years ; 

2 17 



Baldur the Beautiful 

So sought out Fensalir where Frigga sat 
Serene and still, with eyes that looked afar 
And saw but what was good. 

*' Know'st thou/' he said, 
"The iEsir hold their concourse?'' 

"Ay. What then?" 
Asked Frigga, and her voice was like a chime 
Of silver bells rung in the eventide. 

"Lo, this," he answered her. "A prodigy. 
Their darts they fling at Baldur — nay, forsooth, 
Naught leave untried, whatever the weapon 

chance — 
With vigour of the best, and varied aim, 
Yet harm him not." 

"Ay ay," the goddess said; 
And her face lightened like the sunlit sea. 
"Nothing can harm him, for I have the oath." 

"The oath?" cried Loki, and with careful ear 

i8 



The Death of Baldur 

Waited her word. '* The oath? Who then hath 
sworn?** 

'* All things," quoth Frigga, ''saving one alone." 

*'That one?" craved Loki, and breathed not for 

thirst 
Of coming knowledge. ''Prithee, name it me." 

Calm as the light of moon on mountain fiord. 
When summer sleeps, relaxed, upon the hills. 
Was Frigga's smile. "A little shrub," she said, 
"That grows beside Valhalla — mistletoe 
They call it.** 

'* And it dared withhold the oath ? ** 

The deep eyes of the goddess shone with love 
Wide as the universe. "So young it was — 
So pale and weak — I spared its feebleness 
The waste of breath.** 

19 



Baldur the Beautiful 

'*It was well done/* avowed 
The false of heart ; exultant sallied forth, 
Took back his birthright shape, and straight him 

hied 
Thither where by Valhalla faintly grew 
The little shrub, scarce lifted from the root 
That gave it life, too young, too weak to flower. 

Ruthless he brake it from its pliant stem, 
Close hid it in the hollow of his palm, 
And sped him where the ^Esir jubilant 
Their sport pursued, Baldur its goal and crown — 
Baldur the perfect, fashioned all of love, 
Baldur the Beautiful, surnamed the Good. 

An arrow's flight away, sad-browed, as one 
By Pate from common joyance set apart, 
Hodur the Blind, stronger than seven, stood. 
His sinewy arms light crossed above his breast. 
Him Loki swift discerned and swifter sought. 

20 



The Death of Baldiir 

'* What dost thou here? '' quoth he. *' Would'st 

thou alone 
Spare Baldur meed of honour?'' 

''Nay, in truth/* 
Hodur made answer, ''for I love him well: 
He is mine only day, and all my light. 
But weapon have I none; or had I such. 
How should these futile eyes find way to him, 
That see not their own path?*' 

"Stay. ' Loki urged. 
"Take thine allotted pleasure. Lo, this twig — 
Though small, 't is somewhat, truly. Here thou 

hast 't. 
Thy pole star I. Put forth thy matchless 

strength — 
Thine uttermost. Accord him thus much grace.*' 

Thereat Hodur the Blind, stronger than seven, 
His shadowed countenance relit and glad. 
Cried out in voice new- tuned to joy : "I, too, 

21 



Baldur the Beautiful 

Baldur, dearer holding thee than all, 

1 fain would show my pride in thee/' So crying, 
As Loki guided him, struck out his arm — 

His sinewy right arm — with strength of seven. 
Speeding the puny missile on its way. 
Unwitting whither. And before the breath 
That shaped the words had spent its gentleness, 
Pierced through and through to the great heart 

of him, 
Baldur the Beautiful lay dead. 

Woe! Woe! 
Ah, woe in Asgard! Woe to all the worlds! 
Death the unconquerable has entered Heaven. 
Black horror shook the air. Chaos uprose 
From farthest Hel, distort and monstrous. 

Fear 
Froze every breath, cast every limb in stone. 
Aghast, undone, the .:Esir palsied stood. 
With anguished eyes fast fixt where Baldur lay — 
A fallen star, in his own light enshrouded, 

22 



The Death of Baldur 

And coffined in the darkness of the world. 

Hodur, alone amid them undistraught, 

Still smiling soft, joy not yet gone from him, 

Hearkened, anticipant, for answering sign, 

Till suddenly the silence smote on him 

As it had been a blow. Doubt, dread, despair 

Gripped him and drave him forward. Thus he 

came, 
Precipitate, with stumbling senseless feet, 
On Baldur prostrate, bent down groping hands. 
And in the agony of knowledge gave 
His being up, with clamorous groans that rang 
Reverberant through the wide vaults of Heaven. 

Then such a cry went out from all the gods 

As shook the Hel-bound root of Yggdrasil, 

And tore the embedded anchors of the skies 

From every mooring loose. **Woe! Woe!** 

they cried. 

''Baldur the Beautiful! Baldur the Good! 

23 



Baldur the Beautiful 

Baldur, our Brother!'' And the universe 
Rocked like a leaf, while on his lonely throne, 
Odin, the All-Father, veiled his stricken face. 

Lo, then, like mariners on Northern seas. 

Who through the rift of storm-rent clouds behold 

The midnight sun, so were the -^sir ware 

Of Frigga in their midst, stiller than death, 

Mantled in such divinity of grief 

That awe fell on them like a mailed hand 

Compelling them to silence, while her words 

So reached their consciousness as if to each 

His own voice whispered to him in his soul. 

''That son most swift, most sure, let him take 

steed 

And spare not spur, nor stay him day nor night 

For love nor hate, for life nor death, until 

He slacken rein in Hel, and there demand 

Ransom for Baldur, so he come again 

To Asgard, that again the worlds have light, 

24 



The Death of Baldur 

That Yggdrasil bear leaves, and Heaven be 
Heaven/* 

As lightning leaps amid the brooding clouds, 
Out from the ^sir Hermod leapt forthwith — 
Hermod the Fleet, whose foot no wing outflew — 
And swore by Odin's puissant scimitar 
To sate nor thirst nor hunger, nor to seek 
Sleep's intimate refreshment, ere in Hel, 
From Hela, odious ruler of the nine 
Unhappy lands, he won great Baldur back. 
And as at stir of spring's awakening sap 
Boughs bare as bones, flaming to sudden bloom 
Are wreathed halls for hidden choristers 
That fill the air with ecstasy, so Hope 
Flowed re-creating through the ^Esir's veins 
At Hermod's oath, and all their blood ran wine. 

From Odin's throne imperious command 
Then came that ash-grey Sleipnir, first of steeds, 

25 



Baldur the Beautiful 

For Frigga's envoy should accoutred be — 
Sleipnir, whom none but Odin yet bestrode — 
Sleipnir the marvellous, the double-limbed, 
Who trod the ether as 't were pastured earth— 
The swift beyond compare, each leap a flight 
Immeasurable, each breath a molten flame. 
Joyous sprang Hermod to the massive back ; 
So, for a pulse beat, in his brothers' sight 
Stood imaged, straight as fir on mountain top, 
While to the goddess suppliant eyes he bent, 
Mutely petitioning a signalled grace. 
Then by the look she gave him panoplied 
Against aught ill, he spake in Sleipnir's ear, 
Dropped the loose line upon his stormy mane, 
Struck spur, and vanished like a meteor, whilst 
The iEsir's shout still thundered down the dark. 



26 



II 

THE JOURNEY TO HEL 



27 



II 

THE JOURNEY TO HEL 
The ^sir*s Chorus 

Fast! Ride fast! 
Storm rides with thee! 
The shrieking blast 
Thy bugle be, 
The long slant rain 
Of the hurricane 
Thy javelin. 
The race begin ! 

Be the swiftest star 

Thy chariot wheel; 

The lightning's bar 

Step for thy heel ; 
29 



Baldur the Beautiful 

Yon comet wear 
To plume thy hair; 
Mid crash and din 
The tilt begin! 

Ride fast! Ride well! 
Death jousts with thee — 
The Queen of Hel 
Thine enemy. 
Pay utmost toll 
For Baldur 's soul. 
Or die ! Or win ! 
The fight begin! 



Sleipnir sped on. With his first mighty leap, 

Asgard, the bright-built city, silver-walled, 

Shone faintly from the distance, like a gem 

Lost in the gloom ; Bifrost, the Rainbow Bridge, 

With burning central rib of ruby fire, 

30 



The Journey to Hel 

No more was than a smoking shadow ; Midgard 
A pallor sketched against the dimness. On 
And on rushed Sleipnir, every beat of hoof 
A lightning flash, a whirlwind every breath; 
And high upon him, straight as masted pine, 
Hermod, with brow that bent nor right nor left, 
And proud eyes unaffrighted, while the stars,. 
Told off like milestones, measured one by one 
His course through space. 

Now was the outmost sphere 
Only a golden memory dissolved 
In nothingness. His eye where e'er it fell 
Found black, bleak, bitter night — a darkness 

fierce. 
Defiant, treacherous, before advance 
Retreating as a wave retreats, to close 
In after with an all-engulfing rush 
And drown resistance — darkness horrible. 
Massed here and yon in denser blurrings — 

vague 

31 



Baldur the Beautiful 

Colossal shapings supernatural, 

Ungodly and unhuman — ambushed fiends, 

Plotting enormities. 

More swift and more, 
Fleeter than wind, than time, than thought 

itself, 
Sleipnir with Hermod raced adown the dark : 
Nine timeless days fled down the frozen deep — 
Nine days wherein no sun was, midnights all, 
Where was no moon, nor any glint of star, 
Ninefold more bitter grown each sequent hour. 
Caparisoned in sheeted ice the horse : 
Congealed to opals every geyser breath : 
And on his back Hermod, a marble god 
White as the wind- whipped foam, his plumed 

head 
Held high as light on beacon tower, his eyes 
Flinging their challenge fearless on to Hel. 

Nine days he rode — a measureless time of dread 

32 



The Journey to Hel 

Unfathomable. Then faintly gleamed at last 

Across the blotted darkness, like a thread 

Swung from a spider's loom, the Bridge of GjoU, 

Spanning Death's turbid river in an arch 

Of tenuous gold; there, twenty leagues below. 

The mad black billows, torn with ghastly pangs, 

Flow whence none know nor whither, flinging far 

Their jetty spume upon the quavering air. 

Straight o'er the slender scintillating line 

Flew Sleipnir, and each hoofbeat on the gold 

Crashed like a falling tower. At the noise 

Up rose the warder maiden, Modgurdur, 

Unmatched for comeliness and strength . Amazed , 

Hermod she saw, and called to him with voice 

Like rush of mingling waters. '* Who art thou 

That living ridest sole upon the Bridge, 

Which, yester, five score dead men serried 

crossed. 

And shook it less than thou?" 

Nor right nor left 
3 33 



Baldur the Beautiful 

Looked Hermod, nor drew rein, but dropped a 

word 
As sea-gulls, soaring, drop a loosened plume. 
"For Baldur's sake I, Hermod, ride the Way 
Of Death. Hast seen him pass?*' 

'*Yea, verily. 
It was as Heaven had lightened in my face." 

*'What way wenthe?" 

She signed with lifted arm, 
White-gleaming, as 'twixt flying clouds by night 
Shimmers the Milky Way. *' Northward, to 

Hel. 
Yet tarry thou, I prithee." Honey-sweet 
And warm her breath stole through the gloom. 

But left 
Nor right looked Hermod, nor drew rein. And 

on 

Swept Sleipnir, fronting a blast whereto all 

winds 

34 



The Journey to Hel 

That yet had blown were but an idle draught, 
Till, on the farther verge of that abyss 
Whose bottom is the space beyond the stars, 
Loomed up, immense, appalling, mountain high, 
And barbed with poisoned swords that fouled the 

air. 
The hideous, brazen, thrice-barred gates of Hel. 

Down flung him Hermod, tightened girth and 

bit, 
Laughed out, sprang reckless up, once and again 
Cried Baldur^s name; then, as an eagle soars 
And swoops, so Sleipnir with gigantic vault 
Cleared the vast pile, nor grazed the topmost 

blade. 
And rooted stood within the drear domain 
Of Death, each strong limb quaking. Down 

from his back 
Leapt Hermod, with triumphant shout that ere 
His foot attained the sod was cut in twain 

35 



Baldur the Beautiful 

Like a snapt harp-string. Silent then and dumb 
Beside his sweating, palpitating horse 
He stood at gaze, unknowing what he saw, 
And for a space the semblance felt of fear. 

Cavernous gloom, like midnight filtering 

Through hollowed ice, cloaked all the desolate 

place 

In mystery of impenetrable shade, 

Chill with a cankered damp unpurged by sun, 

A dark no dawn should morrow, in whose hold 

Ambiguous and indeterminate. 

Lurked all imaginable chance of ill — 

A terror of suggestion half conceived. 

And o'er it, like the folded shroud on dead 

Stark breast, lay silence awful, absolute, 

Empty of calm as fear is void of peace, 

A stillness as of anguish-packt suspense 

Before impending doom. 

While thus he stood 
36 



The Journey to Hel 

Transfixed, with widened eyes that naught dis- 
cerned, 
Sudden the immensity of loneliness 
Rushed on him, caught him by the throat and 

held 
As 't were a thing alive and palpable; 
And lo ! from out the infinite vacancy 
Came to him his own ghost — a self unknown, 
Naked and importune confronting him — 
They two alone in that vast emptiness ; 
And, awed, he looked his bared soul in the face 
And was aghast, knowing it was himself 
He chiefest feared. 

As then his sight undimmed, 
Far as the straining eye could reach, he saw 
The torpid ether teem with shadowy souls 
As teems a shaft of sun with sliding motes — 
Myriads and myriads of ignoble souls, 
The miserably dead, unslain in fight. 
Thin outlined like a breath upon the air, 

37 



Baldur the Beautiful 

Passing, repassing, helpless wandering, 

Unanchored by desire, intent, or will. 

Ice-wraiths they seemed, blown into vaporous 

shapes 

From grey dissolving mists, noiseless as clouds. 

Each drifting past the other with no sign; 

Each to the other naught, as winds that meet; 

Each companied in its drear solitude 

By its dead self. 

Astonished, thus he saw, 

And for a moment's shame felt coward fear 

Clutch at his breast. In wrath he freed himself 

From the ungodly thrall ; then first perceived 

Through the prodigious dusk a faint far ray 

Of promise strangely sweet, and toward it strode. 

Transcendent waxed the brilliance, and he wot 

Its midmost ecstasy was Baldur's soul, 

Irradiating love and joy and peace 

In rich effulgence, making even in Hel 

A Heaven ineffable. Beside the root 

38 



The Journey to Hel 

Of ageless Yggdrasil he glorious stood, 
God of all beauty and all goodness, which 
Eternally are one, his splendour now 
No more obscured by veiling flesh, ablaze 
As the full sun when clouds are overpast. 
Lo, in that light supernal, as within 
A holy womb, had been a miracle 
Of birth. Deep stirred, the root of Yggdrasil, 
The Ash-tree Yggdrasil, branched forth anew; 
Dead leaves at the imperious call revived ; 
Soft mosses creeping came with velvet tread; 
Sweet sun-warmed scents and half -heard wood- 
land sounds 
Indefinite as sea-shell murmurings, 
Made all the air a trembling ravishment; 
Wan buds awoke, took back their laid-by bloom 
And breathed out shaken raptures; buried 

brooks 
Broke their white tombs, flung their cold cere- 
ments off, 

39 



Baldur the Beautiful 

Leapt laughing to the Kght, and sang aloud 

The wondrous resurrection song of Spring ; 

And one by one, drawn helpless thitherward 

Like sun-sucked mists, the shivering dead souls 

Stretched out pale palms to the celestial gleam, 

And on its burning edge hung quiveringly, 

A nimbus round the flame; while nigher still, 

Included wholly in its radiance, 

A shape, diverse from these and godlier. 

Depended motionless, so subtly mixt 

With the enfolding light as scarce therefrom 

Discernible, and Hermod knew the beam 

For Hodur's thrice blest soul. 

Near by, in state 

Preposterous, befitting birth so foul — 

Sister to Fenrir and to Jormungard — 

Grim Hela sat, HeFs most ill-favoured Queen, 

Ruler of all unslain on battlefield, 

The ingloriously, pitifully dead : 

Nor could even Baldur's brightness re-illume 

40 



The Journey to Hel 

Her livid form to hue less horrible. 
On Hermod full she bent her rancorous gaze, 
And as the Gorgon*s snake-encircled brow 
Transformed to stone who ventured glance 

thereon, 
So blackened Hel at the bare sight of her. 

*'How darest thou, unsummoned, with no taint 
Of death upon thee, thus my realm invade?*' 
The words clashed out like rudely crossing 

swords. 
"What here thy purpose?*' 

Courteous he bent 
The knee. ''At Frigga's hest, great Queen, I 

come. 
Nor will delay to leave thee, so thou grant 
Baldur the Beautiful with me return — 
Baldur the Beautiful, our best beloved. 
Thus only shall the lamentations cease 
In Asgard, where the gods die day by day 

41 



Baldur the Beautiful 

Bewailing him who makes our sum of Heaven." 

Thereat laughed Hela, and upon the sound 

A shudder tore through Hel. '*Lo, now/' 

scoffed she, 
And harsh her voice as iron meeting iron, 
''Shall I win proof if Baldur verily 
Be loved as thy unbridled speech proclaims. 
Bid everything that draws the breath of life 
Throughout the universe — nay, all that is, 
Ev'n an it breathe not — bid all weep for him, 
Compelling his re-birth with suppliant tears : 
Then to the iEsir will I him restore. 
That Asgard know again its vaunted Heaven, 
And every faded star shine forth anew. 
But doth one only shed no saving drop — 
One only of the seething multitudes 
Refuse that bidden sign — he here remains, 
Unransomed, unredeemed, our flower of Hel.** 

'*0h, grace unparalleled! Oh, golden grief, 

42 



The Journey to Hel 

Itself the ransom of the woe it weeps!'' 
Cried Hermod, ravished. *^ O unbending Queen, 
The eternal love of all the gladdened worlds 
Reward thy clemency. Baldur is ours ! 
Baldur once more is ours!'' 

^^Nay, by the gods," 
Swore Hela, **so soon is it not fulfilled. 
Go thou, for I have said, and it abides." 
Again she laughed. Again the floor of Hel 
Shook, terrified. 

Hermod on Baldur gazed. 
And Baldur smiled on him; and with the smile 
Shut in his heart, Hermod on Sleipnir sprang, 
Cried to him once: '*For Baldur's sake thy 

best!" 
Nor needed second spur; o'erleapt the gates, 
And journeyed back the awful Way of Death. 
But lo ! its nameless terrors were as naught ; 
Nor cold, nor dark, nor any thirst he knew; 

And the long course of starless nights and dawns 

43 



Baldur the Beautiful 

A single perfect moment was to him, 

So did hope master time and circumstance. 

As thus he came to Asgard, silver-built, 
That erst shone in mid-Heaven like a sun, 
Now dull and dim as an unlighted moon. 
The White God, Heimdall, watching from afar, 
Caught up the Gjallar Horn, and blew a blast 
Surpassing ev'n that seven-day trumpet blare 
Laid Palestine's beleaguered city low; 
Twice valorously he blew; and ere 't was done 
Re-echoing mid the stars, the iEsir all 
Across Bifrost, the burning Rainbow Bridge, 
Came swift as meteors flung athwart the sky 
From fiery hearted August's catapult. 
Scarce greater joy Laodamia showed 
Her risen lord, re-lent for three hours' grace. 
Than they to Hermod. The fam^d Florentine 
On his high pilgrimage was not so sore 
Beset by starving shades for tale of friends 

44 



The Journey to Hel 

Long since dispaired, as now the god for word 
Of Baldur; nor more swift those shadows 

plucked 
The whole from scantiest beginnings, than 
The iEsir wrested from him at a breath. 

Then each, in tempered grief, as seers who hail 
The desired end beyond a path of pain, 
Cried out aloud with meed of moistened lids, 
And struck their spears against their glassy 

shields 
Till all the air was rent with silver sounds; 
While clear above the tempest of their cries 
Rang forth the slow sad strains of Frigga's 

dirge. 
Tender with longing inexpressible. 

Frigga's Dirge 

Weep, weep for Baldur dead! 

For light, for beauty sped! 

For fairness from all fair things fled! 
45 



Baldur the Beautiful 

Gone is our summer with its flush of flowers, 

Its purpled plains, 

Its sunset stains. 

Gone are its brooks, that babbled in green 

bowers. 

Its misted dawns, its scented dews and showers, 

Its rainbowed rains — 

The glory of its golden hours 

Endarkened wholly. 

Gone, gone our light of life and love! 

No more the iris-breasted dove. 

Melodiously melancholy. 

Croons o'er its plaint within the curtained 

grove. 

No daring wing the distance cleaves. 

No moth its gossamer shroud unweaves. 

No wind-awakened, lisping leaves 

Whisper their pleasure o'er and o'er 

As Day unbars her lattice door, 
46 



The Journey to Hel 

Night swooning at her knee : 
No more the siinbeam's glittering ball 
Rebounds from silver shield and wall, 
Drops from the dome o'er Gimli's Hall, 
Or flashes from the sea. 
No more! no more! 
Evil hath laid its curse 
Across our universe. 
Lost is the god whom we implore. 
Gloom and Despair 
Fold fruitage bear, 
And ice sheets cover 
The stark worlds over. 
Unstarred our eves ; unsunned our noons ; 
Silent our skalds ; forgot our runes ; 
Daytime and night are one. 
Adown the desperate years 
We call with steadfast tears. 
No bitterer Hel can be 
47 



Baldur the Beautiful 

Than Heaven, missing thee, 
Baldur — our life! our sun! 

From highest heights now fell the All-Father's 

voice 
Surcharged with lonely grief majestical. 
Bidding the gods, as light and life they loved, 
Speed forth whithersoever sun revolved 
Or atom stirred, and cast command abroad 
That all things to full measure of their love 
For Baldur, now bewail him long and sore 
With free-spent tears, if haply by such grace 
Might Fate and Ragnarok forfended be. 
And with the uttering of that word of dread. 
On a slow sigh the great voice ebbed away. 
As sighs and ceases a receding wave ; 
And silence held its breath for what should come. 



48 



Ill 

RAGNAROK 



49 



Ill 

RAGNAROK 

NO fleeter follows echo on the sound, 
Than sprang the gods at Odin's sum- 
mons forth, 
Obedience and love conjoined, in speed 
Outvying each his jealous brother god. 
Comets a-race with comets, suns with suns, 
Less swift had traversed space, and in a breath 
Throughout the universe their word was told. 

Grief hath been in the world since time began, 
Life's first and latest birthright ; every soul 
Hides somewhere its unplumbed abyss of pain. 
But never yet was lamentation known 

Like this for Baldur, nor through time to come 

51 



Baldur the Beautiful 

In sorrow's annals shall again be writ. 

No eye withheld the desired sign of dole. 

Not Dante did so weep for Beatrice; 

Not Niobe bedewed her marble feet 

With bitterer tears for all her children slain ; 

Nor did forsaken Dido on her pyre 

More plentiful a show of sorrow make. 

Neither were hearts of human mould alone 

Moved to complaint. Even the merciless 

beasts, 
Missing their moons, most piteous mourned. 

The birds 
Re-tuned their chants to brooding threnodies 
Sad as were his who wept Eurydice 
Yea, ev'n the careless blundering things that 

creep, 

Or whir, or swim, forgot their fretting wants 

Before that greater want of all the worlds. 

No farthest sun but shed a glittering tear, 

Bedewing arid space with grief. The sky 

52 



Ragnarok 

Was all a sprinkle of wet stars. Bifrost 
Pellucid gleamed through veil of jewelled spray. 
The heavy-hearted clouds trailed low, and wept 
In dreary monotone of melancholy ; 
Deucalion from Parnassus' sacred peak 
Saw not so sad a flow. The drooping night 
Shook moisture from her plumes. Each dew- 
tipped leaf 
Quivered beneath its load, and every flower 
Treasured within its heart a fragrant tear. 
No grass-blade but uphung the crystal sign. 
No trembling tree but somewhere pricked its 

veins 
And bled an amber drop. The rivers ran 
Hoarse with long sobbing. The disquiet winds 
Wailed out their heartache through the sighing 

pines. 
The pale mists wavering pressed from bole to 

bole 
Like the dim exhalation of a prayer. 

53 



Baldur the Beautiful 

The seas upon the shingles crashed and broke, 
Thundering out their woe. The shivering 

sands 
Whispered their sorrow o'er and o'er again 
In ceaseless repetition through slow hours. 
The heavy breeze crept, damply odorous. 
Along the sodden ground. The very earth — 
The very rocks — sweated and groaned with 

grief, 
And everywhere uprose the breathless cry — 
*' Baldur the Beautiful — the Good — return!" 

As now the ^sir, satisfied and sure. 
Their mission well completed, rode at ease 
Their frothing chargers o'er the Bridge Bifrost 
Toward Asgard bent, Bragi the Silver- Mouthed, 
Wand'ring apart with heedless rein, his lips 
Outbreathing Baldur's name unwittingly 
As when a slumbering bird dreams out a song 
Softer than memoried music, chanced upon 

54 



Ragnarok 

A quarried cell bewrayed by noisome stench 
From rotting vines and oozing carrion heaps. 
There, mid the dizzy shadows and the drip 
Of mouldy walls where moist misshapen things 
Or crawled, or lurked in foul black-crusted 

webs, 
Squatted inert upon a loathsome mat 
Of woven snakes sat Thaukt, her lurid eyes 
Twin torches lighting up the purple gloom 
With baleful fire that withered aught it 

touched. 

Bragi, amazed, in haste unhorsed himself, 
And bending his bright head, unhelmeted. 
To match the meaner compass of the vault, 
Found way within, and so contrived his tale 
As best should wing it past a careless ear 
To the heart's full conception. Thaukt, the 

hag- 
She who sat, squalid, on the pulsing mat — 

55 



Baldur the Beautiful 

Unmoved transfixed him with her cold bright 

eye. 
''Naught, quick or dead, gain I by gift of tear 
For Baldur slain,'* churlish she answered him. 
''Let Hela hold what 's hers.'* 

"Boundless thy gain," 
Bragi avowed, "regaining Baldur's soul — 
Light for thy murk, beauty and joy and good 
For this thy misery and gracelessness.** 

"To mole or bat the night is fair as noon," 

Sneered Thaukt. " That which by choice is mine, 

as good 

And beautiful already me beseems. 

I crave not Baldur back. Till Ragnarok 

Let Hela hold what *s hers." 

"Nay," Bragi urged; 

And as the wind, with age-long griefs endued, 

Falters and breaks and fails and grieves again. 

So shook his voice, freighted with sympathy. 

56 



Ragnarok 

"If not for thine own need, grant but a tear 
In pity for the need of all the worlds.*' 

*' What is 't to me,'* she flung athwart his speech 
With snarling tongue, 'Hhough craven dogs 

night-long 
Bay hopeless at the moon? Pities the sea 
The shore its white lips suck? Pities the storm 
The wheat its sickle slays? Pities the flame 
The thing it feeds upon? Pities the gale 
The leaf, the frost the flower, the worm the fruit? 
Then wherefore I the grief that is not mine? *' 

''Not thine?" he challenged. ''Sure mine ear 

mistook! 
Is not one spirit father of the worlds. 
Through heritage of whose informing breath 
All are akin? As rivers seek the main, 
Merged evermore in its immensity. 
Quickening currents of a common heart, 

57 



Baldur the Beautiful 

So soul seeks soul, blending in brotherhood, 
Eternally interfused, eternally one — 
A single pulse, athrob through myriad veins. 
How then shall not another's woe be thine. 
His pain thy pain, his need thine inmost own?'* 

''Not so," she said. ''My life alone is mine. 

Leave me unvext.** 

Then he, incredulous 

That thing so weak held power to uncreate 

A scheme so potent, bared of patience, cried : 

"No life is his alone that lives it! Each 

Imports to all, and all import to each. 

Bound by the self -same law of fellowship 

That links the suns each to his neighbour star. 

Who art thou that deniest brotherhood? 

How hast so unlearnt love, forgot compassion, 

Severed the time-old chain *twixt thee and 

thine ? 

Who art thou?*' 

58 



Ragnarok 

*^By thy showing, Hate am I, 
And Misery my chosen dwelling-place/' 
Gibing she answered from the hissing snakes. 
'* Curse thee, begone ! Room is not in my breast 
For love, nor pity, nor desire of good/* 

'^Now by my sword that leaps within its 

sheath. 
Here will I slay thee in thy monster blood!*' 
Swore Bragi, fiercely gripped with sudden wrath. 
Then calmer spake, minded her yet to win. 
*'I err. Forgive. Hate slain were not love 

shown. 
Naught boots thy death. Flawless and perfect 

love 
Alone may ransom Baldur's perfect soul. 
How win thee to that love? How pity teach 
For need thou hast not known?** 

Lo, as he ceased. 
And silence fell between them for a space, 

59 



Baldur the Beautiful 

From Midgard rose the sorrowing peoples' cry, 
A low sad plaint bewailed from star to star, 
And lost upon the void in shattered sounds. 

The Cry of the Peoples 

Splendour of all the worlds, O Light 

The brightest suns transcending, 
Vast as thy glory is our night 

Unstarlit and unending. 
Like wandering souls a-craze with thirst 

From waste savannas crying, 
By phantom oases accurst. 

Who dream they drink while dying, 
So we, blind-eyed and terror-bound. 

Groping through gloom supernal. 
Dream that our faltering feet have found 

Source of thy springs eternal. 

Splendour of all the unsunned spheres, 

Shine down these desert spaces ! 
60 



Ragnarok 

Strike from our souls the numbing fears — 

The horror from our faces. 
Darkness entombs us as in stone, 

Heart sealed from heart for ever. 
Each wind-breath bears a smothered moan. 

Hope lifts her beacon never. 
Oh, though all else the Noms deny, 

Allow our last petition! 
Light! Light! Give light, or grant we die! 

Death — or immortal vision! 



'* Didst heed?*' asked Bragi. "Needs there 

aught beside? 
Canst still withhold the succour of thy tears?'* 



**Avaunt!'' she said, and spat upon the ground. 
*'Thou weariest me.'* And through grim lower- 
ing lids 
Her fiery eyes burned knowledge in on him. 

'^ Loki ! " appalled he cried. " Loki ! Loki ! 

6i 



Baldur the Beautiful 

For all thy strange misshapement, it is thou! 

Loki ! O Cruelty incorporate ! 

Oh, blacker than the blasted Elves of Dark! 

Accurst ! Accurst ! ' ' 

''That which I am, I am 

Immortally. Hela shall keep her own,'* 

Said Thaukt, and malice glittered in her face. 

And now not Thaukt, but Loki, towered there. 

His beauteous form upon the coiling snakes 

Mounted as on a throne, his evil eyes 

Lit with the inextinguishable fire 

Of hate triumphant, his god's shape distort 

With joy ungodly, power malignant, grace 

Ungraced, beauty for aye undeified. 

And Bragi knew — the certitude proclaimed 

As by a searing bolt — Baldur the Good 

For ever lost to Asgard. Thereupon, 

Voicing an unendurable despair, 

From his racked breast broke cry so piercing 

shrill 

62 



Ragnarok 

That all the homeward-wending -^sir heard. 
Dismayed, quick scenting sorrow and defeat, 
They flung their chargers round, and straight 

and swift 
As shredded clouds that fly before the gale, 
Sought out the sound, and at the cavern's 

mouth 
Formed crescent- wise, a glistening company 
Of shining shields, their lifted lances like 
A silver palisade, each splendid brow 
In miserable suspicion sternly set. 

There, at their hands, justly unmerciful, 

Loki, as once Prometheus, met his doom — 

To three torn crags bound trebly fast with 

thongs 

From out his agonising vitals wrought,^ 

While close suspended o'er his shuddering flesh, 

A serpent drop by drop spilled down its gall. 

And as the isles shook when Enceladus 

63 



Baldur the Beautiful 

'Neath ^Etna stirred, so quaked the palsied 

world 
At every throb of his tormented frame. 



O Ragnarok! Twilight of the gods! 

O Day of Odin feared ! Till Ragnarok 

Shall Loki's doom endure. Till Ragnarok 

Shall Hel hold Baldur. Odin, Odin alone, 

The great All-Father, in his prescient heart 

Foresees its boded terrors. Bitter woe 

Shall herald that late dawning; horror and 

crime 
Shall walk the highway bare and unashamed, 
Kinship forgotten in fierce greed of gain. 
Then seasons of tmconquerable cold shall be 
Such as no land e'er wintered — glacial frosts, 
Tumultuous sword-edged winds, unhallowed 

skies, 

And snows from all four comers of the world, 

64 



Ragnarok 

With flakes as linted clouds. Then prodigies 

Vast and calamitous shall follow swift — 

Fenrir, the giant wolf, swallow the sun, 

Hati devour the moon, and Jormungard 

Vomit envenomed floods, stars drop like rain, 

Midgard scatter its hills as dust, its seas 

Toss out as bursting bubbles. In that hour. 

After uncounted ages still to dawn, 

Shall Heaven itself be cleft in twain, and through 

The immeasurable breach, from Muspell, Land 

of Light, 

Shall all her sons come, Surtur at their head, 

Surtur the Mighty, helmed and shod with flame. 

His sword the sun outshining. And beneath 

The tread of that indomitable host, 

Bifrost, the Rainbow Bridge, like shivered glass 

Shall crack and splinter. 

Then shall Heimdall seize 

The Gjallar Horn, and blow a hideous blast — 

The cry of ultimate fear, whose note of doom, 
s 65 



Baldur the Beautiful 

Beating from frightened worid to worid, shall 

die 
In utter wastes beyond. Even Yggdrasil 
Shall tremble through its branched and rooted 

length. 
In that dread day of Ragnarok shall naught 
Be unpossessed of terror. 

Nathless, led 
By Odin the All-Father, king of gods, 
Arrayed for death in timeless majesty, 
The iEsir, with Valhalla's warriors. 
Shall range them on the bewildering battlefield, 
Vigrid, the field of blood. There shall attend 
Muspell's refulgent band, apart and still. 
Proof-clad in brightness unapproachable. 
And there shall gather all Hel's followers. 
With Loki and his fearful progeny 
Freed from their mammoth chains — Fenrir, the 

wolf. 
The stretch of whose vast jaws encloses Heaven, 

66 



Ragnarok 

And Jonnungard, the serpent, he whose tail 

The round of Earth encircles in its coil, 

And Gann, the dog, worst monster of the three. 

Then dazzled, blinded, frenzied, shall the gods 

Rush on their doom, foe leaping upon foe 

In such a conflict of inordinate strengths 

As since Titanic times, when thunderbolts 

Were arrows, hills were slingstones, hath not yet 

Been known to story. Odin with the wolf 

Shall furiously engage, nor bear himself 

Less resolute than did Olympian Jove 

Contending with Typhoeus for his throne. 

But skill nor valour shall advantage him. 

For as relentless Night upon the Day 

Creeps step by step, beats back the radiant 

shafts 

With huge black bulk opposed, stretches agape 

Stupendous red-rimmed jaws and inch by inch 

Overtakes and swallows up its glory, so, 

67 



Baldur the Beautiful 

With one last straight-armed thrust of flashing 

spear, 

Shall Odin die. 

Then tenfold multiplied 

Shall fury animate the warring hosts. 

Fenrir, sore wounded, shall in Vidar's grip 

Yield his foul breath. Thor, magic-gauntleted, 

Shall slaughter Jormungard, and ere his foot 

Hath pressed nine paces onward, shall lie prone, 

Stifled with its black gall. Heimdall shall leap 

On Loki, and they twain, fire blent with fire, 

A blazing one, as one shall fail and sink — 

An extinguished flame. Ev'n thus intrepid Tyr, 

With Garm in combat, shall lie dead beside 

His strangled foe. So each shall seek his mate. 

Inexorably armed with equal rage. 

So each shall fall, victor by victim slain — 

One triumph, one reward, one death for all. 

Alone the sons of Muspell, radiant 

With lustre insupportable, shall still 

68 



Ragnarok 

Aloof and silent stand, their dazzling breath 
Outblown upon the wind like fiery flowers 
That blossom as they perish. 

Then, ah, then 
Surtur the Mighty shall unfold the gates 
Of the far South ! Swift from the luminous land, 
Muspell, shall pour an incandescent flood 
In mass and brilliance comparable to naught 
The mind hath power to image, that shall sweep 
From end to end of the wide universe. 
Worlds, with their moons, for fuel piled on 

worlds; 
Suns tossed on suns; systems on systems heaped; 
Meteors for sparks, comets for kindling straws; 
And at the last, to the minutest ash. 
Extinction absolute; space cleansed and bare. 



So shall the imperfect order of the old 
Be done away, as Odin, king of gods, 

69 



Baldur the Beautiful 

Anguished foreknows; and from the Land of 

Light, 
From the bright bosom of its burning seas, 
Shall rise amain a new fair firmament 
Star-filled : a new sun in the highest Heaven 
More glorious than all the suns that were. 
And a new Earth, lovely and verdurous. 
Whose day shall end not, nor whose summer fade. 
And lo ! a new Asgard shall be again, 
With nobler halls, where greater gods shall keep 
A more exalted state. And in their midst. 
Won back from Hel, sceptred and crowned with 

light, 
Baldur the Beautiful shall live for aye. 
And Night, and Hate, and Woe shall be no more. 

This Odin's vast omniscient eye foresees. 

Piercing futurity with wisdom bought 

From Mimir*s limpid well, and evermore 

The knowledge like a wanton weed overruns 

70 



Ragnarok 

The garden of his thoughts. But in his soul 
He shuts the vision close, and dwells apart, 
Disjoined by wisdom, from the multitude. 



Thus still he sits, majestic and remote. 
Upon his disillusioned, darkened throne. 
Watching the moving worlds, aye and anon 
Catching the gleam, intolerably bright. 
From far Muspell; then bows his august head.. 
And murmurs : ' ' Ragnarok ! ' ' 

And still doth Heimdall blow the Gjallar Horn; 
And still the JEsiv their white horses ride 
Across the Rainbow Bridge with idle shield 
And lowered lance; still meet in Asgard's Halls, 
And under mighty Yggdrasil discourse 
Of great deeds done and greater yet to do — 
Thor with his mallet, Tyr with handless wrist — 
Reck not of Fenrir, nor of Jormungard, 

71 



Baldur the Beautiful 

Safe fettered both, with Garm, the monster 

dog; 
Laugh when Earth trembles under Loki's throes; 
Taste of Idun*s well-guarded golden fruit, 
And, young again, forget dread Ragnarok — 
Somewhat, as swift the centuries slip by, 
Forget ev*n Baldur. 

But, from Fensalir 
Where Frigga sits, who listens close may note 
Day following day, year following year, a sigh 
Upon the fainting breeze float softly past, 
May see a tear drop with the dew, may catch 
A distant cry of love unutterable — 
''Baldur! alas! Baldur, my son, my son! 
Baldur the Beautiful! Alas! Alas!" 

THE END 



7« 



PRONUNCIATION 



g always hard, like g in go. 

j always like y in yard. 

6 always like oe in Goethe. 

-^sir = A'-ser. 

As'-gard. 

Bifrost = Bi'-frost. 

Fenrir = Fen'-rer. 

Fensalir = Fen'-sa-ler. 

Gjallar = Ge-yal'-lar. 

Gjoll = Ge-yoir. 

Heimdall = Hime'-dall. 

Idun = E-doon'. 

Jormungard = Yor'-mun-gard, 

Loki = Lo'-kee. 

Mid'-gard. 

Mimir = Mim'-er. 

Mod'-gur-dur. 

Mus'-pell. 

Njord = Ne-yord'. 

Rag'-na-rok. 

Sleipnir = SlTpe'-ner. 

Tyr = Teer. 

Vigrid = Vig'reed. 

Ygg'-dra-sil. 



73 



DEC 29 1910 



One copy del. to Cat. Div. 



CJK 29 t91C 



